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The Earthquake and The Little Prince

Hello there! It has been a while since I updated this blog. Blogs seem to be outdated nowadays. People would much rather see videos or pictures instead of wordy entries.

Anyway, I feel like I should say something about the recent incident that affected, mostly Japan and China.

First, I feel really bad about what happened. It's really just one of those unfortunate events that happen. No matter how hard people prepare for it, there will always be casualties and the least we could do is try to minimize and contain the situation. I hope they will be able to rise from this disaster asap and I promise to pray as hard as I can for them.

With this, I would like to say that I am not being dense nor insensitive about the issue but I have had this musing since I re-read The Little Prince a couple of days back.

What if the world was smaller. Or what if we were bigger? Or what if our technology was great enough that we could find a way to correct the natural course of things so that disasters wouldn't happen? The Little Prince does this by regularly cleaning his volcanoes and trimming the baobabs. What if we could clean our volcanoes and rearrange the plates so they will not result into earthquakes and stuff?

What if that would be possible? Now that would be something eh?

basketball fan

if you supported the lakers when their starting five were: smush parker, kobe bryant, caron butler, lamar odom, chris mihm, you are a true laker fan

if you supported the celtcis when their starting five were: delonte west, ______, paul pierce, al jefferson, ________, you are a true celtic fan (obviously i'm not)

if you supported the heat when their starting five were: mario chalmers, dwyane wade, michael beasley, udonis haslem, jermaine o'neal, you are a true heat fan

all others you are a basketball fan-in general ;p

ping pong song

For years, I have liked this song.. There was something in the beat that I find really cool.. It might be the ping pong balls or the fluctuating beats but I thought it was cool the moment I heard it. I still think it is..

What I didn't like about the song though, was this phrase:

"Do you know what it feels like; loving someone who's in a rush to throw you away?..."

This is probably the most painful thing a girl could do to a guy. And it really does hurt. I have an idea of what it feels by now... You see it in the movies and it makes you laugh (at least for me).. I didn't think it'd happen to me.. nor did I think it would hurt that much...


But it does..



Really.



My only thought is this: "I could have been kicked hard in my balls and it still wouldn't hurt as much."

it feels different..

have you ever looked at something twice and thought it was two different things in each of the time you viewed it?

i am experiencing something similar to that except that i know it's the same thing but it feels so different. better. a lot better..

and the truth is, i think that feeling is real.

to toil for one's land so thou may have food on the table

i was trying hard to be poetic when i came up with that title. EPIC FAIL on my part. anyway, i am not really enjoying the second half of my mandatory leave. it wasn't as fun as my first one because i didn't really plan anything and except for a few errands, i really do not have anything to do...

i bought two games and a couple of dvds so i could have something that'd keep me busy. i finished all my dvds and have become pretty good at fight night rd 4 and fifa 11. i have four more days before i head back to the office. i don't miss working; i just wish i planned some stuff so i wouldn't be stuck in my room playing video games all day!

ok. the good thing about being on leave is you get to be on hiatus so it gives you the time to pause for a while and think about stuff you normally would not have time to think about.. i have come to the thinking that it is better to have your own business than work for someone else's business. i have these reasons:

1.) your pay is not commensurate to your labor

no matter how hard you work or how much you lax, you still get the same amount of money every 15 days. and the only way for this to change is for you to get a salary increase or a promotion.

2.) the basis for salary increase and/or promotion is not necessarily based on objective merits

in theory, those who perform the best or those who really contribute to the team should get the increase and/or the promotion. but if the company is on the red, you probably won't get any. worse, if your efforts go unappreciated and unacknowledged you probably won't get any... YET AGAIN!

3.) it is really hard to climb the ladder

truth is, for as long as men sustain their existence, there will be newborns everyday. and not to sound utilitarian but a lot of us could offer the same service and functionality. none of us is indispensable and we follow the same process. you gotta be extremely rare to climb the ladder.

4.) people are really competitive

in business, competition is the key! i think it best to kill the competitors and be the sole provider of a good or service. it keeps profits high... given resources and good industrial organization, this can be done. as an employee, it gets subtly very competitive and it could get into your nerves sometimes. (no pun intended on anyone).

i'm sure i have a lot more issues but you guys got the idea! i hope one day i could have a business and i could toil for my own land and the harvest i get would be commensurate to my work.

Thoughts on the Satisfaction of Man

Economics is best described as the proper allocation of limited resources to man's unlimited wants and needs.

I think it's important to reiterate that man has unlimited wants and needs for this post. I for one, should admit that I never seem to get satisfied with whatever I have. When I graduated from high school to college, I asked for an allowance increase. When I got that increase, I told my parents the increase is not enough. When I got my job, I got a decent pay. And now, what I earn still seem to be insufficient. This could best be explained by the income effect wherein our expenses increase with respect to our income. I also think that this has something to do with the nature of our expenses. Surely, our expenses are very different from 5 years ago?

As opposed to my header, I will not dwell much into man's satisfaction as to man's DISSATISFACTION. If truth be told, man will never be satisfied BECAUSE he has unlimited wants and needs. So, I guess the challenge is not so much on satisfying man. The challenge that our insatiable wants pose is: How could we minimize dissatisfaction?"

Let me cite a concrete example and sadly, I am part of this example:

A couple of months ago, a lot of us were complaining about the workload. There really is just too much work being given to us and we do not have enough time to finish them. We have migrated a lot of processes to the other teams during the re-organization. So strictly speaking, a significant chunk of our day-to-day activities has been lessened. I for one could find time to read the news for twenty minutes after I take my lunch (But I rarely consume my whole hour for lunch). It helps that I stopped smoking (saves me 20-40 minutes a day). I rarely render overtime work now. Now I realize I don't have as much money as I used to make. But it's ok! Because now, I feel less burdened. I am not as stressed. However it sickens me when some people still complain about work. I do not get it! Our work is a little bit lighter; we are less stressed and people are still complaining about the exact same things???

What happened in the past, was unjust. In fact, it was inhumane. And up to now, I think some teams do not share the same good fate that we have in our team. It is just a tad irritating when people complain even if measures were made to make our lives easier. Apologies. I digressed too much.

Going back to the topic of minimizing dissatisfaction, I firmly believe that minimizing dissatisfaction should not come from lowering people's expectations so they become complacent and are easier to please. I believe that the key is having a completely transparent understanding of what people are in for and staying true to promises. In every agreement, both parties should set a common goal and both parties should deliver. I cannot stress this enough. Both parties should set a common goal and both parties should deliver!

Let me share to you some quotes that pertain to this topic:

"If the blanket is too small, you bend your legs so you would fit."

- While it is true that we should make use of the current resources that we have; I think it best that though we should bend our legs for the time being, we could look into our options on how we could get a bigger blanket for the future!

"Money does not solve your problems. It never does!"

- Relatively speaking, yes. Money does not solve all our problems. The more money we have, the more we spend. However, I really think there is an income floor for this. Up to a certain level, additional money won't really help. But what about those who earn 100 pesos a day with 5 mouths to feed? Surely, acquiring more money would help? I do think that if you're single with no familial obligation whatsoever, a net income of 30k pesos should suffice. Everything else is extra (for savings, car, vacation, etc.)